The Aga Khan Award for Architecture was established by His Highness the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims in 1977. It honours design excellence and recognizes the impact of projects on communities and the environment. The current Aga Khan rewards the architects as well as the municipalities, builders, clients, master artisans, and engineers who are involved in the projects. This distinguishes the Aga Khan award from other architectural awards. The prize fund of the award is $1 million which is shared among the architects and clients of the winning projects.

The award is given every three years to projects that set new standards of excellence in architecture, planning, historic preservation, and landscape architecture. It is governed by a steering committee which is chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan. The committee is responsible for the selection and appointment of an independent master jury for each Award cycle. It also oversees the award's international seminars, lectures, exhibitions, and publications programme.

In choosing winners of the Aga Khan award, particular attention is given to building schemes that use local resources and appropriate technology in innovative ways. Jurors also look out for projects that are likely to inspire similar efforts in other jurisdictions. Winners of the award are selected by an international jury that relies on detailed technical reports made by independent experts who visit every finalist’s project.

In each cycle of the awards, a new committee is formed. The motive is to establish the eligibility criteria for project submissions, provide thematic direction in response to emerging priorities and issues, and develop plans for the future of the awards.

The Aga Khan award recognizes architecture that not only provides for people's physical, social and economic needs but also stimulates and responds to their cultural expectations. This combined focus on architecture and communities makes the Aga Khan Award one of the most important awards in architecture.

REFERENCE

Information from https://the.akdn/en/how-we-work/our-agencies/aga-khan-trust-culture/aga-khan-award-for-architecture, https://www.world-architects.com/en,   https://www.architecturalrecord.com/ and https://www.archdaily.com/ was used in this story